SALFIT, June 17, 2025 (WAFA) – Israeli occupying forces on Tuesday evening installed a new metal gate between Kifl Hares and Hares villages, northwest of the occupied West Bank city of Salfit, according to WAFA correspondent.

He said that the soldiers erected a new metal gate in the area between the two villages, effectively blocking the only road left for villagers to access the city of Salfit.

The occupation forces have already sealed off the gates at the main entrances of Kifl Hares and Hares, severely restricting the movement of their residents.

Earlier today, forces installed a similar gate at the entrance of Deir Ballout town, west of Salfit.

The occupation forces have been tightening military measures across the occupied West Bank since hours after the release of the first batch of Palestinian prisoners as part of the Gaza ceasefire went into effect in January, dismembering and isolating cities and governorates from one another using military gates, barriers, and concrete blocks.

They have severely restricted Palestinians’ freedom of movement within the occupied West Bank through a complex combination of approximately 898 fixed and flying checkpoints and gates, including 18 gates that have been installed since the start of 2025 and 146 others installed in the aftermath of October 7, 2023, settler-only roads, over 200 military bases, and various other physical obstructions.

The Israeli military measures are in parallel with ongoing attacks by Israeli colonists across the West Bank to terrorize Palestinians and displace them from their lands to seize them and build illegal Jewish colonies that separate Palestinian communities.

Closures, besides other measures, taken under the guise of security, are intended to entrench Israel’s 58-year-old military occupation of the West Bank and its settler colonial project which it enforces with routine and frequently deadly violence against Palestinians.

K.F.